Make a Wood Storage Crate

This project was inspired by a card box my husband Tom and I made for our nautical-themed wedding reception last summer. I made a lot of stuff for the wedding and I was literally working until the last minute at the church figuring out how to attach my homemade veil to my head! I finished my jewelry the day before! Two or three nights before the wedding I had set aside time to assemble this card box. I had already cut the pieces out but needed to nail it together and decorate it. I came down with what I thought was a terrible cold and I asked Tom to assemble the box for me. He came through and did a great job! I recovered quickly from whatever I had (if I actually really had anything other than stress) and was feeling fine the next day so I did the decoration in a hurry.

Card box we made for our wedding last summer with decoupage decoration

I painted the above crate-style card box with a wash of brown paint to “antique” after applying decoupage decoration. For the following storage crate project I’m going to experiment with applying a light colored paint wash on unsanded wood to be sanded, assembled and then decorated with stencils.

If you want a more refined look you can substitute lattice strips for lath wood, they are similar in size and thickness with a smoother surface and fewer irregularities.

Instructions

1. Paint your wood pieces with a wash of white acrylic paint. A wash is paint with water added to thin it out and make it semi-translucent.

2. After paint is dry, sand the rough spots with all-purpose sandpaper and sand the edges to bring out a little more of the natural wood color. The effect of sanding the edges is subtle but adds a lot of visual interest.

3. Take three of the 12″ slats at a time and tape them down onto your work surface. Normally for stenciling projects I use painters tape or masking tape, but I was out of both so in the pictures you will see me using duct tape and drafting tape as substitutes.

4. Tape stencils in place on your work surface over the wood. Choose a light to medium color of paint and dab the paint through the stencil openings with a sponge.

5. Lift the stencils and let the paint dry. I rearranged my wood pieces on the work surface to see what they would look like if I turned every other piece around 180 degrees so that the stencil designs would be scrambled. I liked the effect!

6. Set the two end blocks on your work surface and position two side slats across them. Add a dab of wood glue at each point where the wood will connect for extra strength.

7. Drill two pilot holes at the end of each wood strip with the tiny drill bit. Hammer in nails and repeat until both wood strips are nailed securely to the end blocks. Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other side, then for the bottom.

I only stenciled one side of these wood strips, so for the bottom of the crate I ended up turning them over so you could see the design if you looked down into the box. You could stencil both sides or have the design facing down while the box is in use if you prefer.

8. Next I stenciled onto each end of the crate. I set the crate on end on a chair to bring it to a more convenient work height. Tape the stencil down and if necessary, mask out the parts of the template you don’t want to use with tape. It’s easy to accidentally sponge into areas you didn’t intend.

Here is what one of the ends looks like after the final stencil. You can really change the look of the crate depending on what stencils and colors you choose to use. You can also make crates in different sizes to fit different needs. They make great baskets for gift giving too. Have fun!

Additional Resources

If you want some more home decor inspiration here are some additional resources:

Spring 2019 Mood Board – yes spring 2019 is done by now but a lot of these looks have been around for several years and should be good for inspiration for awhile yet. There is a lot of raw wood, tin, burlap and looks that you could easily recreate with hardware store items.

“Is that a weed?”

A client asked me that question once while we were looking at a wild spot in her yard that she wanted to convert into a garden. We were brainstorming and I was trying to get an idea of what style of garden the client might want. She asked me if a tall yellow-flowering wildflower prominent in the proposed new garden spot was a weed. A weed is a plant where you don’t want it, not a particular species, so that isn’t always an easy question to answer. In certain styles of garden that plant would have been a weed, in others it would have been appropriate. So I told her in so many words, “You get to decide whether it’s a weed or not. It may or may not look good in your new garden depending on the style”. It would have been lovely for example in a wildflower meadow or bird garden but problematic as part of a garden that depends on a manicured look.

I volunteer at Litzinger Road Ecology Center and even though they specialize in growing native wildflowers, they had too much Fleabane on the patio where they didn’t want it, so in that particular spot it was a weed. I moved some to my new rock garden and I think it looks very appropriate there. It should look even better when this rock garden gets a chance to fill in a little. My husband Tom even complimented me on this plant completely unprompted! As this rock garden expands, I’m planning on planting around the tufts of moss that grow on this slope rather than removing them. I love moss and I want it in my rock garden. When this area was formerly supposed to be turf grass, moss was a problem.

Some plants have “weed” in the name which gives you a clue about how it is sometimes regarded. This Swamp Milkweed that I just planted in part of our new rain garden could get “weedy” because it reproduces like crazy at my condo, which is where I obtained these transplants. There are many more still to bring over! These get to be large plants and when I run out of space they might become “weeds”. For now, they are a critical part of my landscape plan and I’m overjoyed to see lots of seedlings. I can welcome many more before there are too many. I’m going to try to grow multiple milkweed species because they provide critical Monarch caterpillar food.

Pokeweed is another plant with weed in the name that can get “weedy”. In a wildflower garden you might want to leave one or two. It is native to Missouri and provides bird food. It is also quite pretty. I’m used to getting rid of it entirely on client sites but when weeding a wildflower garden at Litzinger Road Ecology Center the other day I asked first about each plant before removing it because I know the purposes of gardens there are much different than on most client sites. I was asked to leave one Poke plant in this case (it’s behind the native Columbine). That’s exactly what I recommended a few years ago for my Dad’s garden which was designed as a wildflower garden that is friendly to birds and pollinators. A few Poke plants are nice in a wildflower garden but too many could be a problem because they really spread a lot.

My mother-in-law has Wild Ginger that she considers weedy because her garden style doesn’t call for continuous ground cover. We associate Boxwood as shown at left of this picture with manicured garden styles so when we see it with something that looks wild or naturalized it just looks overgrown to our eye, not harmonious. My gardens are very informal though, and I’ve been digging some of this up to replace at least some of the Vinca minor at my condo. Wild Ginger is native and Vinca minor is invasive, so I’d much rather have the Wild Ginger. My mother-in-law is finding it hard to believe I want this but I’m really delighted to have it – it’s been on my wish list for years! In the right garden this could be beautiful – in the wrong one, a major maintenance headache. At one time I deliberately planted the Vinca minor because I love the flowers and it took me years to get it established, but now I have too much and it has passed into “weediness” for me.

This reddish seedling came up in the garden at the condo. I like to find out what a volunteer plant is before I pull it if at all possible in case it could be interesting or useful to grow somewhere. I showed the photo to the folks at Litzinger Road Ecology Center and they said it was an invasive Tree of Heaven and to destroy it! I was hoping it was a native Sumac that I could move to our house but sadly not, it has to go.

The Importance of Plant Identification

I wrote about the previous examples of how I’m dealing with “weeds” so that you can get ideas for how to treat any volunteer plants that you didn’t expect or are not sure you want to keep. It is necessary to identify the plants so that you can get information to make an informed decision. I need to write more about plant identification but in the meantime this previous article I wrote for Schnarr’s has some identification tips in it that could help: How to Diagnose Plant Problems.

Here is a Pinterest board I started to help identify, treat and prevent weeds: Weeds

Here are some applications that can help you out with identifying plants:

Adventures in Buying Dirt

Tom and I need a lot of dirt for the landscape design we’ve been working on. We need to regrade some areas and we need to add dirt to raised beds that I’m making. We’ve been buying a few bags of topsoil and potting soil here and there but to get the job done right we are going to have to order a truckload – or two?

In order to know how many cubic yards of dirt to order, I needed to calculate the area of several spots on the property where we wanted to add dirt. The more conventional way to do this is to use graph paper, tracing paper and special rulers to draw the areas to the right scale. Another way is to purchase a graphics kit such as this Patio and Outdoor Living Room Spacing Kit that I bought to experiment with. There is also landscaping computer software that is designed specifically for making landscape or home plans. I have a graphic design background and a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud so for our project I decided to start out with the tools I know best – my computer, a scanner, Abobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop.

Last year to begin our landscape plan I went to the St. Louis County real estate lookup web page and did a search for our house. I took a screenshot of the aerial photo and edited the image in Adobe Photoshop to cut out the areas I didn’t need. I imported the image into Adobe Illustrator and drew over the photo to produce the rudimentary diagram shown in this article.

Measuring the whole house and yard by hand to figure out the square footage of areas where we want to add dirt was an option but not a very appealing one! So as a shortcut I took a piece of graph paper from the Patio and Outdoor Living Room Spacing Kit and scanned it. I made that a layer in Photoshop. Then I imported my diagram as another layer and measured a part of the property that was a nice even number. The porch is 8 ft wide. The scale of the graph paper was 1/4 inch (one square) = 1 foot. I shrunk the graph paper image so that 8 squares on the graph paper lined up with the length of the porch. I duplicated the layer enough times for the grid pattern to cover the whole diagram. Now to find out the length and width anywhere on the property all I have to do is count the squares on the graph paper layer.

Still in Photoshop, I drew transparent yellow blocks over the areas for which we need dirt. For each block, I figured the length and width and multiplied them to get the square footage. I made a list of each distinct area and its square footage. Then I used the cubic yardage calculator on the St. Louis Composting web site to convert my numbers into a quantity of cubic yardage for each section. The calculator doesn’t require that you calculate the square footage but I wrote those numbers down just in case I need the information later for some other purpose such as calculating fertilizer or seed.

I added up the cubic yardage for the entire project and came up with 28 cubic yards. St. Louis Composting’s dump truck (although quite large) only holds 13 cubic yards at a time so I ordered one truckload to start off. It was difficult for me to picture what 13 cubic yards of dirt looks like until I saw it – it turned out to be a good thing that they couldn’t haul all 28 yards at one time!

To prepare for the shipment I purchased a couple of 10 x 20 ft tarps from Schnarr’s and laid them on the driveway to receive the dirt. I covered the pile with other tarps I already owned and it was barely enough. It started raining about 10 minutes after the delivery and it’s taking us a couple of weeks to distribute this pile. We didn’t want our new dirt to get heavier than it needed to be or wash away in the rain so it was well worth the effort to cover it!

One of these days I’d like to learn the industry standard method of diagramming landscape plans. My goal is to do some practicing while I work on detail areas of our landscape plan. For now, I’m the only one who needs to understand this diagram but if you are handing off work to someone else you might need to hire a professional landscape designer to draw up a plan in the conventional way. Landscape design services might be included if you are getting work done. You can also hire a designer to draw up the plan for you to use with other firms doing the actual work or in the future.

Additional Resources

Here are some other applications that can help you out with measuring your property:

1. Gather some thin wood scraps and cut them into pieces in the 3/4 inch to 2 3/4 inch range to make bases for wood pendants. Try different proportions and shapes so you can try out different design options.

2. Drill holes so the pendants can be strung onto a necklace later. You can also add extra holes for dangles if you want to. Sand the wood pieces smooth and wipe off with a damp rag.

3. Paint the wood pieces all over with gold acrylic paint. When the gold paint is dry, choose a spot on the front of your pendant and paint a white mark, such a stripe or a circle and let dry. When you start layering translucent images onto your pendant, the white spots will show through and help provide a focal point for your design. You can paint in a loose manner or make precise shapes or preferably experiment with both to see the effects.

4. Take some of your found images from magazines or laser prints and paint them with a layer of clear gel medium. Let dry, and apply a second coat with the brush strokes in the other direction. Let second layer dry, and apply a third coat in a diagonal direction. Let all layers dry for several hours.

5. Take strips of clear packing tape and use the Scotch Magic Tape to hold them down at the ends, sticky side up, on a rigid clear tote lid or piece of plexiglass. Cut or tear found images and press onto the tape pieces with the sides you want to show facing downward. As you layer on images, you can check your work by picking up the clear tote lid and peering from underneath to see what your work looks like.

The backs of packing tape pieces all filled with images.

The underside of the plastic lid showing tape pieces from the front.

6. After the tape is completely filled, remove from the lid and tape face down on a clean rigid surface like a desk top or table top. Rub well in several directions with a burnisher or bone folder.

Here are some tools you can use to burnish the images firmly onto the tape – bone folder, squeegee, French curve, old gift card.

7. After the tape strips are thoroughly burnished, soak them in water. Add the images that you coated with gel medium also. When the paper on the back gets soft, gently rub it until it peels away. You will probably have to change the water and rub multiple times to get all the paper off. When you are done, only the ink will be left on the tape. Dry the tape and gel pieces back/sticky side up on paper towels.

Tip – to avoid clogging your drain, dump the water with paper pulp in it outside instead of putting it down the drain.

8. Take one of your images on tape and hold it over your pendant piece until you find a composition you like. Loosely trim the tape piece and coat the front of the pendant with gel medium. Press the tape onto the front of your pendant and push any extra glue out and wipe off. Let dry, then trim around with a scissors. Use a crafting heat tool to speed the drying if necessary.

9. If your first image layer does not quite look finished as is, cut sections out of some of your gel-coated pieces and use the gel medium to glue them on top of your tape layer for extra interest. Top off with a final coat of gel medium and let dry.

10. Re-pierce your hole or holes with a needle tool, and put a jump ring in your hanging hole. If your pendant has multiple holes for dangles, put a jump ring in each hole and attach dangles to the jump rings. Run a jewelry chain with a clasp through the hanging jump ring. You are done!

The Right Plant in the Right Place…

… is the advice you hear over and over again when you are learning about gardening. To help make both yours and my garden planning easier, I’ve made Pinterest boards on the Schnarr’s Pinterest site that go along with the rudimentary diagram I made for my garden planning last year. I have included plants I need to transplant now, plants that I am possibly interested in growing in the future and many other popular selections. You can use our boards as a starting point to make your own boards or photo galleries that correspond with the garden categories relevant to you.

Right now I’m managing two gardens, one at my condo and one at the house I have lived in with my husband since we got married in August. Last year I started transplanting some plants from the condo to the house as I work on the new garden. The process has been a lot slower than I expected but I’m back at work now and I’m overjoyed to be outside!

Decisions about where to put my transplants are much easier now – I just match them up to the correct category on my diagram. Some areas will need more detailed planning later but for now I’m getting the job done by putting the plants in the correct section and working with what I have. Stay tuned as I make slow but steady progress!

Schnarr’s employee Carolyn Hasenfratz Winkelmann is teaching this class again for the first time in three years, and for the first time at Schnarr’s. Make amazing lightweight pendants by transferring found images onto wood. You will be supplied with the materials to make a necklace for wearing your pendants. You will learn the basics of transferring images with tape and gel medium and attaching a clasp to a cord necklace. I will have a selection of transferred images on hand for you to use at the beginning of the class, then while your pendant or pendants are drying, I’ll show you two different techniques for converting found images into beautiful embellishments to add to wood pendants and other art and craft items.

Each class attendee will receive a printout with a written tutorial for that class so if you forget anything we learned you can refer back to it later. Jewelry tools will be available to borrow during the class and some tools and supplies will be available to purchase if you want to continue working on your own.

At each class, there will be at least one door prize randomly awarded to an attendee – probably a craft supply item of some type that relates to the theme of the class. Past prizes have included a necklace kit, a polymer clay frame kit and a craft stencil. That’s my way of saying thank you for coming!

What to Bring
It’s not necessary to bring anything but it’s a good idea to wear old clothes in case there is a glue mishap. If you have found images on glossy papers like magazine or catalog cutouts, or laser printed copies, you can bring those as a source for images.

What’s Provided
I will provide wood pendant blanks, gel medium, images, packing tape, findings and parts for at least one necklace. I will have tools to borrow during class.

Art Journaling With Stencils and Image Transfers

Materials (* = items that are available at Schnarr’s)
Scrap mat board or chipboard
Book binding rings* available at Schnarr’s Webster Groves Location
Clean scrap paper
Tracing paper
Clear packing tape – wider strips are the most versatile
An assortment of found papers (pages from old books, magazine pictures, catalog pictures, laserprint copies, paint samples, etc.)
Assorted papers to use as pages – can be drawing papers, art papers or found papers from various sources.
Paper towels*

In case you missed my in-store demo during the Webster Groves Fall Art Walk in October 2018, this art journal book is what I was working on. I chose to work with a lot of abstract designs and random images to have fun with shapes and colors and not worry too much about content. When I was working on my demo, a customer asked what I was doing and I told him. He responded by saying, “I don’t have any kids”. Kids could do a book like this, but it’s fun for a person of any age who likes to experiment with visual media. I’m 51 and I can play with this stuff for hours! Coloring and playing is healthy for anyone to do.

Instructions:

To make the cover, cut two pieces of scrap mat board or chip board into 6″ by 6″ squares.

Punch two holes in each piece along one edge and link with binding rings.

From an assortment of your found papers, cut several pages 6″ x 6″. Using the cover piece as a template, trace circles on your inner pages to indicate where to punch the holes for the binding rings.

Here is a selection of potential pages cut from old books, posters and magazine ads. You can use blank sheets of paper in your book, but it can be intimidating to start with a blank page. When you’re making altered art you can just build on what is there.

Using permanent markers, draw through some stencils to start some compositions on your pages. The stencils shown in the above sample are stencils that I cut myself. You can cut your own stencils or use pre-cut art stencils. It helps make your work more interesting if you vary the line weight of the markers. Add bits and pieces of collage papers if you are inspired to do so. Glue them down with a glue stick.

Here are a few more examples of two page spreads in progress. I added paint sample strips to some of the pages to remind me to have fun with color.

Next start making some image transfers to add to your pages from packing tape. Use masking tape to hold strips of packing tape flat on your work surface, sticky side up. Start sticking papers you like to the tape, keeping in mind that the side that connects with the sticky side and faces down is the one that will show. The recommended sources of good papers for image transfers are glossy images from catalogs and magazines, and black and white or color images from a copier or laser printer. Areas that are white on the paper may turn out to be mostly clear or translucent depending on how much ink and clays and minerals are in the paper.

When you have covered the tape with images, turn the tape over and burnish well with a bone folder or squeegee. Burnish in at least three different directions and press hard to make sure all the paper areas make contact with the sticky tape. In the image below, the tape pieces in the center have had the paper removed already, and the strips on the sides still have the paper on the back.

After the tape strips are thoroughly burnished, soak them in water. When the paper on the back gets soft, gently rub it until it peels away. You will probably have to change the water and rub multiple times to get all the paper off. When you are done, only the ink will be left on the tape. Dry the tape pieces sticky side up on paper towels.

When your tape strips are dry, you can apply a glue stick to the sticky side and paste them in your book where you think they’ll harmonize with what you’ve already started. Continue to develop your pages further with coloring implements of your choice and more stenciling and collage if you choose. These little books make a great portable art activity if you carry them around with a selection of your favorite drawing and coloring tools. Here are some of my pages in various stages of completion.

Open the binding rings to insert your pages inside the covers in any order that you like. Decorate the book cover if you want. If you ever want to add new pages, you can just open the rings and insert them where you want them. I put a date on my pages when I consider them complete, and if I am really pleased with them I upload them to my Art Journaling Pinterest board. Have fun!

How to Diagnose Plant Problems

If something is wrong with your plant, it could be a pest, a disease or something environmental. I sometimes get asked by Schnarr’s customers to help diagnose plant problems in the store so that they can select the right product to treat it. I can often be helpful, especially if the customer has time to allow me to look things up using my favorite online resources. There are way too many possibilities for any human being to remember them all! It’s extra helpful if the customer brings in a sample of the pest or affected plant part.

If you want to do a little research before shopping for products, here is my procedure.

1. First I go to images.google.com and do a descriptive search to see if any pictures come up that look like my problem.

Search tips:

The more you can identify the flora and fauna in your garden the more precise your initial searches will be. I’ve gotten a lot of joy during my whole life from the hobby of nature study and although I still have massive amounts to learn, being able to identify some common plants and animals in the area makes it easier to get started.

There are ways to identify plants and invertebrates that involve knowing the scientific terms for body parts or plant parts, but if you don’t want to get that detailed just describe what the specimen looks like and see what the image search reveals. Once when trying to identify a bug to find out whether it was beneficial or a pest, I did a search on the phrase “true bug wide lower legs” and I was presented with pictures of Leaf Footed bugs. That was my bug all right, and a pest. I learned what a Prometheus Moth that I saw on my deck was by searching for “huge brown moth Missouri” and comparing the pictures. Sometimes you have to add more detail. My first encounter with a Catalpa Worm in a state park was memorable because they are huge and beautiful. A search for “huge larva black and yellow Missouri” was too vague for a quick ID but a search for “huge larva black and yellow Missouri Catalpa” gives instantly good results. It helped that the Catalpa is a distinctive looking tree and I remembered what the larva was feeding on.

The cultivar of the plant is very helpful to know, if applicable. Some cultivars are either more resistant or more susceptible to certain plant maladies.

If you can identify the plant but not the pest or disease, try a search for “——- pest on Name of Plant” or “——- blight on Name of Plant” or “Symptom on Name of Plant.” For example recently I looked up “webs on burning bush” for a customer and narrowed it down to two possibilities. I found one product in the store that would treat both. Depending on the symptoms other common search terms you might try are things like “fungus”, “mildew” “rot”, “rust”, “disease” or “wilt”.

If you don’t know the plant name, describing the plant might help, for example “chew holes in vine” or “yellow spots on leaves small tree”.

2. Consult reference materials.

With a name of a plant or pest or disease in hand, I start to go to my favorite online horticultural resources to refine the identification as much as possible and look for causes and treatments.

If I’m at home, my library of gardening books is helpful. Missouri Botanical Garden has a nice library that you can consult in the Kemper Center, along with computers for guest use. This reference area is quiet with soothing fountain sounds in the background and I like to sit there with my laptop and write sometimes.

3. Use as many relevant factors as you can to narrow down a diagnosis. For example, in the “webs on burning bush” search results, there were initially more than two possibilities, but two of the possibilities were listed as being common in hot dry weather. Since that happened to be our conditions at the time I went with those two possibilities over the others. In other words, different growing conditions, seasons or other factors may make one disease or another more likely.

4. Put a piece of white paper underneath the affected area and shake the plant. The white paper makes tiny pests or debris easier to see.

5. Many but not all plant diseases are host specific. If multiple plants of the same species are affected by the same problem but it does not affect other species, that’s a strong indicator to look for a pest or disease. If a problem affects more than one species or only a subset of the plants of one species in the area, look at issues other than pests or diseases first. Don’t forget to investigate cultural or environmental factors such as:

Too much or too little water

Soil compaction

Soil ph or fertility

Chemical “burns” from too much fertilizer or contamination from de-icing chemicals

Poor drainage

Root or bark damage

Accidental herbicide application

Amount of light getting to the plant

Sun scald

Improper planting depth

Root girdling

Exposure to extreme temperatures

If you are looking at turf, is the damage regular or irregular in appearance? Rigidly regular marks may indicate damage of human origin.

6. Sometimes you need to consult a specialist. The identification of “shield bug dung beetle gold and brown spots Ozarks Missouri feeds on dung” still eludes me. I should have taken a photo, then I could send it to the What’s That Bug web site or show a ranger the next time I go to a state park. If you can, take a photo or bring in a specimen to the expert you are consulting. Here is a link to the Missouri Botanical Garden Gardening Help options.

When you consult professionals for help, you may get recommendations for products that are not marketed to the home gardener. If you don’t see what you are looking for in our store, please ask us for help because there are many things we can order from the warehouse in addition to what is on the store shelves every day.

My design for in-store signage for use on an endcap at Schnarr’s Hardware store in Webster Groves, MO was influenced greatly by my love of stencils. I had recently used stencils to make signs for another store. I was happy with the results and eager to try similar lettering techniques with a different look.

I took a set of chipboard reusable letter stencils that I got from Schnarr’s and used them to trace letters for the words “DIY Classes” on pieces of scrap cardstock and thin chipboard. I cut out each letter by hand using an X-acto knife, metal ruler and self-healing cutting mat.

My next step was to give each letter piece a wash of white paint mixed with matte medium and water. After the paint was dry I used some rub-ons burnished with a bone folder to add hardware and building imagery over the white paint wash around the cutout letters. Then with a small brush I outlined the letters and edges with a painted-on line of non-watered down white paint.

I cut out pieces of black cardstock slightly larger than my letter pieces and placed one behind each to add a frame and make the letters stand out. With an awl I poked holes in the four corners of each letter piece and fastened the layers of paper together with brads, using a variety of washers from my stash here and there with some the brads for extra variety and interest.

After making my letters, I measured the space available for my sign and took stock of what materials I had on hand. I knew I wanted a lightweight sign that would harmonize with the vintage imagery in the rub-ons, look good with the store’s color scheme and suggest the types of mixed media techniques I teach in the DIY Classes I’m promoting.

I decided to decoupage paper imagery all over a piece of foamcore and paint over the paper pieces with a wash of red-brown paint so that the designs on the papers would show through and not be too dominant. Most of the paper I chose was by the company DCWV. I looked for paper designs with things on them like vintage letters and numbers, rulers, keys, hardware, aged wood and brick, clock faces, vintage machinery and the like. I used Modge Podge to glue the papers over the foamcore and I mixed matte medium with the paint to make a translucent wash.

The finished foamcore panel was a bit smaller than the space I needed to cover so I made a frame out of cardboard covered with burlap to mount it on. First I cut out 8 pieces of corrugated cardboard, 2 for each side of the frame for extra strength. I bound the pieces of cardboard together with masking tape then I covered the cardboard frame sides with burlap, securing the burlap with tape on the back side. I poked holes in the burlap covered pieces and in the front foamcore piece with an awl and I used nuts and bolts with washers to attach the layers together.

I laid out my letters on top of the cardboard/burlap/foamcore assembly and saw that the second line, “Classes” was a bit too wide to fit onto the foamcore and was going to have to overlap the burlap edges to fit. I decided to bolt on a couple of old yardsticks to provide a surface for attaching the second row of letters. This emergency adaptation turned out to be a happy accident because in my opinion the rulers added great interest to the design and looked terrific with the images and colors I was using.

My last step was to attach the letters to the sign with mounting tape. I love this stuff!

Stop by Schnarr’s Webster to see the finished sign. On the endcap below it you’ll find samples of projects for future classes I’ll be teaching along with assorted art and craft supplies, some offered at clearance prices!

Cut blocks of wood into 5″ x 3.5″ x 1.5″ pieces (two-by-fours cut into 5″ lengths). Make as many pieces as you want letters. For example, if you want to display someone’s initials, cut two or three blocks. To spell out the word “holiday” cut 7 blocks.

Paint all sides of the wood blocks with holiday colors, beachy colors, or any color scheme of your choice. Let dry.

Sand the blocks to bare the corners and get rid of any painting mistakes. I’m fond of the distressed look so I don’t mind the sanded spots giving an aged and worn appearance to the wood. The distressed look is even better if your wood pieces have bumps, knots or other flaws in them.

I worked on several blocks at a time so I wanted to experiment with different layering effects. One some of the darker colored sides, I stenciled a letter with white paint.

Cut some shapes out of decorative papers and use Modge Podge to adhere them to some of the painted wood surfaces. You might want to use shapes that are related to the theme of your project, such as ornament shapes or trees for Christmas, fish for beachy, trees or deer for woodsy, etc. Possible sources of shapes to trace are stencils or cookie cutters. Let dry. You can also cover an entire side of the block with paper if you want.

Since I was working on several blocks at a time, I labeled the backs of my paper pieces and the spots where I wanted to put them with corresponding letters so I could match them up later.

Here is the method I use to apply paper with Modge Podge or other glue without the paper wrinkling.

Paint one side of the paper pieces you want to glue with Modge Podge and let dry.

Paint the other side and let dry.

When ready to apply, paint a thin (but not watered down) layer of Modge Podge on the back of the paper and on the surface you’re gluing it to.

Press paper in place and burnish with the squeegee tool to get a flat seal and push out excess glue. Wipe glue away.

To help me decide where to place paper pieces, I outlined in pencil where my stenciled on and metal letters would go.

Here are the fronts and backs of my blocks with the paper pieces glued on.

Mix up some white or off-white paint with water to make a light wash. Paint your wood blocks with the wash and let dry.

Use painter’s tape or masking tape to hold a letter stencil where you want it on a wood block. Sponge paint through the stencil. Remove stencil and let block dry. Repeat for each block until all your letters are done.

If you think your letters need a little more emphasis, you can place your stencil over the letter again and use it as a guide to draw an outline with a Sharpie Marker. You’re done!